


White Arrow

by 3gj4x2



Category: Lupin III
Genre: F/M, Some Plot, minor npc character death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:27:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29044617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3gj4x2/pseuds/3gj4x2
Summary: “You like her.” Lupin teased, his head peeked out from the sofa.Jigen knows this game well enough that his reaction is almost clockwork. He used to get annoyed by it, now he just deflects it.
Relationships: Jigen daisuke/Laetitia Bresson
Kudos: 1





	White Arrow

“You like her.” Lupin teased, his head peeked out from the sofa.

“Cindy? The waitress?” Jigen scribbled on his crossword puzzle. “Yeah she’s cute.” He stopped only when the police siren echoed from outside their room, a quaint motel in an obscure street that the owner was willing to let them stay mostly seeing how Lupin looked worse for wear after the Eclipse incident. 

Lupin may looked fine but Jigen and Goemon didn’t miss the awkward slouch when they were stalking down the alleys to hide from the police. Nor did the way Lupin would grin wide to mask away the pain he’s feeling when he had to shift his body. Jigen suspected a rib had cracked and he was right when he treated him.

When the sirens faded out, Jigen stalked near the gaps of a curtain, peeking out nonchalantly.

“Not Cindy.” Lupin pouted, “Laetitia.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jigen stayed where he was and continued with the puzzle. “Aren't you the one being chummy with her? You've already got Fujiko, so why not double the trouble, am I right? ”

Lupin stared at him and then sighed as he gingerly lay back down. “You’re no fun.”

“Find something else to entertain yourself.” Jigen said, tossing the newspaper over the sofa as he walked past, the thief yelping. "I'm going out."

When Lupin gets bored because he can't move his body around much, his mouth does the moving and that's how the teasings and jokes comes in. But why he had to point her out at all (out of every other women previously) Jigen would never know and he reminded himself to stop caring the moment he exits the room. He’s been on this wild ride with Goemon and Lupin for many heists, they’ve interacted with many women over several countries and he’s sure even Goemon did have a few crushes more than the ones they had known. Some are cute, some are flirtatious, some are dangerous and the heartache- he’s better off without getting too close. And that was it. A passing attraction, butterflies in the stomach (he’s only human) and that pining feeling will be gone after a few months when they were more worried about who’s getting shot, where their escape routes would lead them to and where to stay low.

And that was where he found himself, inside a two storey home, late at night and in the middle of nowhere, with his magnum pointing to the back of a homeowner’s head. It’s been years and the routine’s always the same; get into trouble, split up when things get too hot, hide away. They trust each other to move independently and survive somehow. To his quiet relief, the homeowner did not resist when the large hammer on her hand was safely extracted and he set it on the book shelf away from her. That ended up falling into a pile of books which then collapsed into another, the noise made him bit his lower lip, he didn't realised the book shelf was at full capacity.

In his defense, he would't have chosen to break in but it was the one building out of the few he spotted when following the beaten pathway that looked remotely “safe”. By that, this meant the building stood further away from the rest with a decent clearing around it and there was only one window light turned on in the bedroom where every other room is dark and seemed devoid of life. There were a few other buildings that he had seen, but it looked to have more occupants and he's not one for crowded company. If he had the choice, he would rather keep searching until he found some abandoned place to hole himself up and stayed for the night. However, when you’re out in the middle of nowhere south of the Amazon rainforest running from some really pissed off natives with three arrows sticking out of your body for the past two hour hike, your choices are really limited. And desperate.

Jigen nudged the gun lightly at the back of her skull. “Portugues voce fala?” His voice cracked as he spoke in broken local and he cleared his throat, “Hablar Español oder sprechen sie Deutsch? ” Lifting his hat slightly higher, he noticed she's a head shorter than him and wearing an oversized attire that made the small woman even smaller. He doubted she would try to do anything, although..given that he’s been bleeding, arrow through his left arm and shoulder and another at the side of his right thigh, he might really lose this round if she fought back.

When she didn’t respond, he lightly tapped the top of her head with the barrel of his gun, just enough that he noticed her raised hands flinched slightly. “I can speak all of them but English is fine too.” She finally said. 

“Okay.” He said, pausing to give himself time to think and then continued. “First off. Sorry." He might have stepped on some of the clutter, he can’t tell at the moment. "Really sorry I broke into your home.”

“Oh that’s okay!” She said, “Oh wait.” 

He’s sure that was a reflex answer, he smiled to himself and chose to ignore it. “Second..” His hand patted lightly on his jacket, felt the silhouettes of his wallet in the inner pocket. Good, it’s still here. “I have money. 200 American dollars I can give you upfront as long as you keep quiet about me being here. It's a simple deal and we just stay out of each other's sight, nothing more.”

“Are you... in trouble with the law?” She asked slowly.

“Always but..” Jigen frowned; something about her voice sounded familiar, “Not this time. I was chased by some natives and I just need to hide for awhile.” He can’t quite place it, there's this tingle of knowing something at the tip of his tongue. “Anyone living with you?” It’s a little unusual for one person to live alone. Or maybe he’s just overthinking it, he hadn’t lit a stick for a day and he’s running on fumes and feeling light headed.

She shook her head, “I live alone, I do my research here.”

“Oh.” That explains the books and papers all over the place. “Well, sorry if there’s some blood on your papers. I did tried to avoid stepping on it but it’s sort of…” how to put it nicely, “..well..”

“A complete disaster.” She sighed.

“Not really a complete disaster in a way.” He deliberated in his words, “It’s just...messy.” He gestured with his free hand even though she can’t see it. “I mean...that’s how it is right? Researchers are always messy, they gotta put their stuff spread out to think clearly.”

“Well, if you insist.” He could tell she was still smiling from the tone of her voice. There was a pause before she finally spoke again. “How long do you plan on staying?”

“Uh..” He never thought of that. Shit. Then the 200 isn’t enough. It might be more than a few days since he still needed to scout the next possible hideout (hopefully an abandoned one) and then get to the main road and a proper city so he could get in contact with Lupin and Goemon. But if the natives decided to venture out, and somehow able to track the blood trails to her place... He shook his head; he can't stay here for those few days, he might put her at risk but he's not in the best state to think clearly now. Her head turn but he poked her with the gun to stop her movements. “Eyes forward." He warned. "I just need a first aid kit and maybe 4 or 5 hours in a store room, or bathroom, anywhere really that I could clean up the mess afterwards. Once I am gone, you can call the cops and tell them you were threatened at gunpoint, that should wrap things up nicely.”

“You could.. stay longer if you like.” 

Her voice was so soft he almost thought he imagined it. “What?”

“Well...You did said you need a first aid kit right? So, when you said you might have bled on my papers and that you needed a few hours, that means you’re..” She hesitated. “Hurt.. pretty badly. You should rest until you’re fully recovered.”

He snorted lightly. “Full recovery not an option for me, Missy.” Shouldn’t she be a little wary of a complete stranger with a gun to her head.

She went silent again and then said. “I’m going to move my hand.. to switch on the lights.”

He didn’t stopped her when her hand carefully but cautiously reached out for the wall, as if waiting for him to warn her not to. But when he made no noise, not even when her fingertips touched the light switch, she finally turn it on. His eyes flinched under the brim of his hat now that the room is awash in bright light, when he finally could see, the light showed how cramped the room was. Although, he noticed she had kept her furnishings bare; the curtains are plain, no decor or photo frames on walls, there's no carpets so he could see the trail of blood that came from the window that he had lockpicked, some of it had fallen on book covers and pile of papers (he did say sorry earlier). 

He looked to his left, there's three overflowing bookshelves and ahead of him was a desk with piles of photos and drawings and a computer that is switched off. The papers and books on the floor seemed to be arranged and stacked according to whatever findings was noted, and cross referenced with one another. A few of the books had fallen into a heap from where he had accidentally knocked into when he was fumbling around in the dark and then there was the other pile that had the hammer lying on top of it. 

This was why she decided to go here and investigate the noise instead of staying at wherever she was and calling for help. He entered her study room and all her important research is in here. That was dangerous though for her sake. Did she actually called for help before coming here? No..no he didn’t think she did. He could have heard something, a faint voice or a phone or...maybe he wasn’t paying attention. Standing before him, is a woman with brown hair neatly tied up in a bun, a few locks of hair sticking out and falling out of place, likely she was either asleep or tied up her hair in a hurry. She wore a loose sweater and sweatpants, with some gray fat cat prints on it and fuzzy looking socks. She looked nothing like a researcher but then again, he’s intruding in her home in the middle of, he spied a clock at the desk, 3am in the morning.

“I know I’m not the best person to tell you this.” Jigen said, he's aware he's contradicting his earlier statement. “But I could have been a serial killer or a psychopath. You probably should have called the cops and lock yourself up in a room.”

She lowered her head, a soft exhale came from her when she spoke, “The line was disconnected.”

“Are you kidding me?”

She shook her head, “The communication lines over here won’t always work. Sometimes we have blackouts too.”

Jigen looked at the computer. Oh. 

“I’m going to turn.” She announced.

Part of him tells him to threaten her not to move, to keep facing forward and just tell him where the first aid kit is. That would be the end of it, really. No need for more social interaction. As long as she didn’t see him, she had no way of identifying him or finding a vantage point to take him down. He could just pulled back the hammer of his gun, the sound of it should be enough to scare her to not do anything anymore and warned her not to try her luck. For all he know, she could have kept up the nice facade and then attacked him the moment she turned and saw his condition. That's why she's living alone isn't it, she might be a criminal keeping a low profile. 

No..that’s just..paranoia. 

Maybe he could have just surrendered and get himself arrested, he’s just exhausted from all that running and feeling more faint with each passing minute. He's praying hard that, as she started to slowly turn around, she won't try to kill him or something. His hands are shaking the longer he held his arm up; he can’t hold his gun steady anymore, he could barely aim right to give off a warning shot and might shoot her by accident. And despite that part of him knowing that he should have stopped her from turning around, he’s lowering his gun just as he sees the start of her small nose and the fluttering of her long eyelashes and the way her lips pursed and eyes nervously looking on the floor. There's a few strands of silver hair, stressed hairs as he called it, peeking out near her temple but otherwise, she could have been mistaken for a young woman in her early 20s. No one owns a house like this at 20 but damn it, he’s lost every will to look imposing the more he stared at her in her oversized outfit with both hands nervously lowered and then held together close to her chest. 

When they finally face each other fully, her eyes looked up to him and widened and he could see the clear blue of her eyes under the light, she finally smiled at him with a meek wave of one hand. His free hand held the top of his hat, quite aware that the arrow, that missed his head, is still lodged at the top and he tipped the hat down in greeting before pushing it upwards so the brim of his hat would show her more of his face. He looked and smelled like shit, a wreck that had rolled in the mud and gravel and could just use a hot shower and some sleep but at least he remembered his manners.

“I'll be quiet so you won’t know I’m even here.” Jigen said, he slipped his magnum behind him as he’s making that offer of peace. “I’ll leave quickly once I patched myself up, Missy. ”

She opened her mouth, pausing then smiled again, “You haven’t changed much, Mr. Jigen.”

To say he’s confused would be an understatement. He gawked at her for a full five minutes; trying to process which women in his life would still remember fondly of him, or held a grudge enough to go after him (they would have already attacked him if they were). When he didn’t say a single thing, she reached for her hair to pull off the bun and tie a a handful of hair behind her while leaving the rest to cascade down her shoulders.

“Oh.” Jigen blinked. “Miss... I mean, Doctor..uhm..wait Ms Bresson!”

“You remembered!” Her smiled grew wider and sighed with a huge relief, "I thought the voice was familiar, I was worried it might have been someone who just happened to sound like you!"

“I'm surprised you could still remember me but wow...it’s been 8 years,” He blinked again, he couldn't helped but beamed as he looked at her up and down, then at the study room. “Guess I should have made that connection huh.”

“You can still call me Laetitia. It’s...what my friends called me. And well.. I don’t look like THE Professor now…” She looked at her attire, feeling warm at her cheeks, her fingers tidying up her hair into a bun again, “but I also majored in 10 languages with a PhD in social science and um.. well... I get requests five times to hold a seminar at this university in California ”

Jigen whistled, “You really deserved the honors, Boston and now California? I’m glad that you finally made it this far. Oh and likewise by the way, just call me Jigen.” His hand motioned to the room. “So this, you’re here to do research? Paid research from the institute to come all the way here?”

“Been at it for 2 years now.” Laetitia nod, she turned around to look at the books all over and then back at Jigen. “It was actually a former researcher's work that I took over. She was working on the Kchallu tribe that lived deep in the forests here. We don't have photos or video recordings of them but we do have rough sketches of what they might have looked like although it's hard to pinpoint on their appearances...” She stopped and started examining the point of the arrows sticking out of him. Her eyes turning wide at whatever she was looking at.

“What is it?” He drew back slightly, it’s not that he’s nervous when women get too close to him but she’s really leaning in way too close to those sharp pointed arrows that’s still dripping in his blood. 

"This...this might be..." She murmured, then squinted.

Jigen tried to stare at whatever she was looking at, there's three jagged edges of the arrow blade showing faints of what looked like white dye at the tips due to the blood coating most of it. He took his hat off and offering it to her instead so she could look at the arrow more closely and not bloodied. He eyed nervously at the pool on the floor where her socks almost stepped on before looking back at her, still oblivious and had now moved to the desk to look through the books. He remained standing where he was.

“It’s the Kchallu Tribe. The tribe I was telling you about.” When Jigen only stared at her and said nothing, she continued. “The arrow has three distinct jagged edges on the blade with white tips, now these was supposed to show a rank of hierachy.” She walked back to him and pointed to the uncontaminated arrow blade, “So you got shot by someone that has a high status. The head of the tribe would have their own personal arrow cache where the arrow blade is coated completely in white to prevent the arrows from being stolen by anyone from the tribe."

"Well next time I'm going to steal those white arrows to get back at them." It's petty but he's annoyed.

Laetitia frowned, "Jigen!"

He can't tell if she was being serious, he's a thief after all. He pouted back at her, "What. It's not like they're planning to trust modern folks anyway."

"They did, I think.." She pursed her lips in thought, "I do think they had developed some trust based on the journal we got when the police returned it to us. It belonged to the former researcher that I was taking over, Dr Pon Joy. ” 

Jigen blinked. "The..police..?" An eyebrow slowly arched, "Former researcher?" 

She exhaled softly, her head dipped down before she looked up to Jigen, "Her body was found next to the river two years ago. Autopsy showed she had an ankle fracture, bruises on her arms and legs and a broken neck. The journal was found in her bag along with other personal belongings. The lower parts of her jeans and shoes was wet so she might have been running from the attacker along the river before they caught up to her. The police never found who did it and when I took over, I was transferred to this place. Something about being easier to make sure they can spot any intruders, they had to keep me under watch for a year and a half before they finally decided I'm safe to not have them around anymore."

"She was chased and killed by those people? And the police think it's safe now?" He frowned, more likely they just stopped giving a shit, that's how corruption can be. On the other hand, he'd have to count his lucky stars that the police were gone so that he was able to come here.

Laetitia shook her head. "No..I don't think it was the Kchallu." 

She didn't elaborate more on the police and Jigen let that drop, saying instead. “They sure weren't the type to ask questions.”

“She must have been seen as someone who isn't hostile to the tribe since she was allowed to stay in their village for five years. So there's definitely some trust that they were able to have with her.” She squat down, looking through a few books, it didn't even fazed her that there was blood on some of them and it's not a mere few drops. “The interesting thing about this tribe is that they were thought to have orginated further north before moving to central and believed to have been wiped out in the 17th century. But in the 19th century, they were mentioned again by those who travelled through the forests before vanishing off again, we're assuming this is because they're taking more efforts to not be seen. What sticks out and is believed to be the Kchallu tribe was the way they mimick animal sounds to communicate with each other. So it's like a tiger communicating with a parrot, a monkey calling to a wolf, that sort of thing. In the past 40 years, we started to confirm of their existence by accounts of hikers, rangers and locals. It's not that unusual for tribes to have interacted with someone from modern society. " She held up a few books though Jigen could barely see the title of it and at some point she started explaining more about various tribes in other parts of the world and her own theories, looking at one book to another but he's having a hard time focusing. He only nod, hoping she did not noticed it and finding it charming that she seemed so engrossed and deep into the research from the way her fingers moved and gestured and the way her lips shaped when she enunciate some of the words. "As to what we had gathered, she hadn't seen any humans being consumed during her time with them. There were some items found in the village that looked to be from modern civilization but she was afraid to ask more details about them. It seems they tend to get hostile or closed off when she pointed at those items to ask. So we don't really know if they had hunted lost hikers and consumed them before her arrival or without her knowing. ” Laetitia stood up and walked over to her desk again. She pulled out a pair of rubber gloves and he watched as she carefully pulled the arrow out of his hat before holding the arrow up to stare at it. “So this..this is it. This might be the first actual evidence that belonged to the Kchallu.”

She turned and beamed a smile at him with as much enthusiasm as a child discovering a present on Christmas Eve. Yet in that smile, there was also exhaustion, Jigen wondered if she had been sleeping this late since she came here. Had she been working non-stop for two years, did she know more about this Dr Pon Joy, why wasn't there anyone else working with her. The questions are making his head hurt and he really didn't want to think so much right now. “First out of many that you might find in the future.” He said, then pointing to the arrow, “You should probably put that somewhere safe and get some sleep too. ” 

“Right! Of course, I should...” Laetitia looked around for something and then gestured to it, “Let me just put this aside, give me 10 minutes! Here’s your hat.” She laughed nervously and handed his hat back.

“Yeah sure,” He’s grateful that she gave him his hat back, his fingers was already jitterish when the both of them just stood and stare at each other. 

“Um, I’ll be back quick!” She turned away quickly, though he saw the growing red on the cheeks. 

“It’s fine.” As she started to walk away, he realised that he didn’t need to rush her. “Take your time..” 

Because frankly, there was little else that Laetitia could do for him now. In between handling a sample that Laetitia would have never thought she would be the first to come across it, and a man who survived gunshot wounds, sniper rounds and torture, he won’t die from this. At least from the times he had bled from worse wounds and still ended up alive somehow. But... stamina is a whole different ballgame; he really should have find time to exercise inbetween the crazy heists and travelling around the world. He held on to the last threads of strength he had, waited until Laetitia disappeared to another room before he stopped caring whether gravity pulled him at this point. He won’t be able to soften his fall, or find something to hold onto for support (he might bleed into more books or cause a mess again). So he simply lets the world rotate and freefall until his head hits sharply against the cold floor, recoiling in pain when the impact agitated his wounds. He barely moved, the wounds are throbbing and he’s really, really having a hard time trying to see. Laetitia's blurry form appeared out of the room then rushing forward upon seeing him on the ground. 

“Jigen! Oh right.” She stopped and turned back, “..first aid kit, first aid kit..”

She sounded really cute, he smiled faintly to himself. 

**Author's Note:**

> This came out of nowhere in my head and wouldn't leave me until I write this down. It's a simple story really, I hoped. I'll add more tags if necessary in the future chapters.


End file.
